COMPANY MEETING

CABLE AND WIRELESS, LIMITED

(THE OPERATING COMPANY.

SIR EDWARD WILSHAW'S REVIEW

THE eleventh ordinary general meeting of Cable and Wireless, Limited (the operating company), was held on May 21st in London.

Sir Edward Wilshaw, K.C.M.G. (chairman and managing director), in the course of his speech, said: This is a record year. The account I am able to give you of our operations during the year 1939 is one of financial and other achievements which far exceed those of any other year since the formation of the company 12 years ago.

The profits are up by £600,00o. The liquid resources of the com- pany are now over £4,000,000, nearly £3,000,000 of this being in British Government and other securities, while over £1,00o,00o is in cash at bank. The dividend a few years ago was only one-quarter per cent. The 4 per cent. gross dividend payable for the year 1939, which just reaches the Chancellor of the Exchequer's limit, amounts to no less a sum than £1,2oo,000, or £225,000 more than the previous year, and experience of the first four months of this year gives con- fidence not only in its maintenance but, if continued, even better results.

As to the colonial wireless telegraph and telephone installations, the sets went out from England in the early days of the war. The significance of these installations lies in the uses to which they may be put. As an auxiliary service in cases of emergency or the inter- ruption of the cables, they should add greatly to the flexibility of our system, bringing to the Colonial Empire the advantages already existing on what I may describe as the main lines of our traffic. I can say that the sets have far exceeded our expectations.

Long before we meet next year we may be able to report that every cable station in the Colonies is equipped with wireless. There will then be a complete dual system of cable and wireless chains throughout the system, and this augmentation of services supplemen- tary, and complimentary to each other will have been accomplished in under 20 months.

INTRODUCTION OF 2S. 6D. TELEGRAM FOR FORCES I come now to the question of war conditions and I may mention first two steps taken to meet particular and special requirements. The flat rate for Empire Press traffic was a recognition of the need for the exchange of news, but in war-time there are many occasions when an urgent service is vital, not only to the .Press but to its readers. We therefore reduced the urgent Press rate to half. We had also to consider those serving in the Forces, so many of whom have come to our aid from distant Dominions and Colonies, while others, from home, are themselves serving in distant parts of the Empire.

To meet their case, and to enable them to keep in touch with their families and their kinsfolk with them we have introduced the Expe- ditionary Force message or EFM servi? ce, at 2s. 6d. or half the Empire social telegram charge with the further advantage that no charge is made for the address. This service is available both ways for the Army and Air Force, and for all ranks of the Royal Navy when in the United Kingdom, but I regret that it has not yet been found possible to include &nada.

Your company is the only British-owned and operated overseas telegraph company in this country, and while we have cordial and reciprocal arrangements with the foreign telegraph companies in this country, we cannot but feel that in many respects they are specially privileged. Some of them, to the best of our knowledge, are, or have been, operating in this country for some years without such licences as those we have to obtain and whose terms we must observe. Then again, quite apart from the restriction recently imposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on dividends generally, we have a special and permanent dividend restriction of a meagre 4 per cent. above which one half of the profits have to be applied to further reduction of rates.

No such restriction is imposed on foreign companies working in this country. Neither do they come under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Communications Advisory Committee, and though that body has been most helpful to your company it has no control over our foreign competitors here. With all this and while it is impossible for us to operate in their countries, their presence here compels us to keep open branches in this country to compete with them, at con- siderable cost, and if this were not the case, large savings would accrue to your company and much additional revenue to the British Post Office.

APPEAL TO BRITISH USERS

It must also be remembered that His Majesty's Government now has a substantial holding of shares in this undertaking and would participate in any savings this company was able to obtain as a result of concentration. Until, however, this is found to be possible, we think we have the right to appeal to the British users of overseas telegraphs to support the British company, owned and operated by British capital and labour. The more use that is made of this system the larger will be the portion of profits which have to be set aside for further reductions. in rates for their benefit, while at such a time as this that money should be kept in our own country as far as possible by supporting British companies.

We were the pioneers of overseas communications, and it was British vision, imagination, and enterprise that made British com- munications predominant throughout the world. That is a position we cannot maintain if we give facilities to the foreigner in this country which they will not give to us in theirs. Failure to appreciate the realities of this situation is bound to have its serious effect upon British communications.

The report was adopted.